JESUS CHALLENGE - PHASE ONE: THE CHARACTER OF JESUS OUR PURPOSE: What does it actually look like to be a christian? To be a christian is to be like Christ. You can't know Jesus, or really be like Jesus, without knowing His character. So think of this as a moment to reset and redefine what and who Jesus is. Our goal is to deepen our relationship with Jesus, and His word, as well as getting to a place of understanding AND applying it to our lives. We pray that through PHASE ONE you discover who Jesus is and who He says you are. Want to be added to a group chat to get daily encouragement from a leader? Drop an emoji in the box on the next story! TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1. ABIDE IN THE VINE 2. LOVE 3. JOY 4. PEACE 5. PATIENCE 6. KINDNESS 7. GOODNESS 8. FAITHFULNESS 9. GENTLENESS 10. SELF-CONTROL 11. REPENTANCE 12. FORGIVENESS 13. GRATITUDE 14. COURAGE & BOLDNESS 15. GUARD YOUR HEART 16. SERVANTHOOD 17. WHO HE IS 18. WHAT HE SAYS ABOUT YOU 19. GIVING 20. DISCIPLESHIP 21. DWELLING 22. WORSHIP 23. PRAYER 24. READING HIS WORD 25. OBEDIENCE 26. UNOFFENDABLE HEART 27. FOUNDATION 28. SPEAK 29. COMMUNITY 30. BACK TO HIM 1. ABIDE IN THE VINE DEFINED: 1. To accept or act in accordance with Jesus is our source of true life and fulfillment. Jesus calls us to abide in him because apart from ​ ​ Him we will become burnt out, weary, and ultimately lifeless. The more time we spend with Jesus, the more life-giving fruit we will produce! The fruit that results from a life of following Jesus is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). All these things come with abiding in Him. READ: John 15:1-5 (TLV) ​ “I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He trims so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. The branch cannot itself produce fruit, unless it abides on the vine. Likewise, you cannot produce fruit unless you abide in Me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” PRAY: God, thank you for showing us how to abide in you. Right now I open my heart to what ​ you want to speak to me. Help me to understand what it means to truly abide in you on a deeper level than I have before. Lord, I know that you correct those you love and I know that you love me, so correct me and help me to identify areas of my life that I need to abide in you in. Place a strong desire in my heart to be more like you. In Jesus name, Amen. LISTEN: ABIDE - HOUSEFIRES 2. LOVE. DEFINED: 1. An intense feeling of deep affection 2. God The greatest commandment is to love God and the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39). Let's redefine what love means to us: God is love! (1 John 4:8) Love is explained simply for us in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (TPT): “Love is large and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and consistently kind to all. It refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. Love does not brag about one’s achievements nor inflate its own importance. Love does not traffic in shame or disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honor. Love is not easily irritated or quick to take offense. Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. Love is a safe place of shelter, for it never stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up.” If God is love he is all of these things explained to us in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Take a moment to read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and replace the word “love” with “God”. Because God is love, we can have confidence that he is all of these things. Replacing “love” with “God”: “God is large and incredibly patient. God is gentle and consistently kind to all. God refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. God does not brag about one’s achievements nor inflate His own importance. God does not traffic in shame or disrespect, nor selfishly seek His own honor. God is not easily irritated or quick to take offense. God joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. God is a safe place of shelter, for He never stops believing the best for others. God never takes failure as defeat, for He never gives up.” We know that Jesus loves us because he laid down his life for us! (1 John 3:16-18). Now, take a ​ minute to replace the word “love” with your own name. Because God is love, and we are called to be like him, our names should fit in these verses. Of course, no one but God fits all of these things! Reflect on the ways that you love well and the ways that you don’t. READ: “Those who are loved by God, let his love continually pour from you to one another, because God is love. Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of him. The one who doesn’t love has yet to know God, for God is love. The light of God’s love shined within us when he sent his matchless Son into the world so that we might live through him. This is love: He loved us long before we loved him. It was his love, not ours. He proved it by sending his Son to be the pleasing sacrificial offering to take away our sins.” 1 John 4: 7-10 (TPT) PRAY: Father, help me to see others through your eyes. Help me to love recklessly, the way ​ that you do. Thank you for loving me in my most unlovable times, you are so faithful. Fill me with your love, show me how to love myself the way that you do. Help me to love without expecting anything in return, just as you have loved me. Amen. LISTEN: LEAN BACK - MAVERICK CITY MUSIC, AMANDA LINDSEY COOK, CHANDLER MOORE 3. JOY. DEFINED: 1. A feeling of great pleasure and happiness Joy is defined as an experience or an emotion of great pleasure or delight. Sometimes joy is confused with happiness. Happiness is a temporary feeling based on circumstance, where joy is consistently from the Lord in every situation. We can all agree that we would love to have more joy in our lives! The Bible teaches us that in God’s presence there is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). God Himself dwells in joy (2 Chronicles 16:27). The more time we allow God’s presence to be a part of our lives, and the more we recognize His constant presence with us in all circumstances, the more joy we will experience! READ: “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24. “You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” Psalm 16:11 (NASB) “Never stop praying. Always be joyful. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 (NLT) PRAY: Father, thank you for your presence that is always with me and the joy that comes from ​ being loved by you. Fill me with your Holy Spirit so that I can become closer to you and in turn experience a greater joy than I’ve ever known. Show me how to experience joy in times that aren’t normally joyfull. Amen. LISTEN: JOY - HOUSEFIRES 4. PEACE. DEFINED: 1. Freedom from disturbance; tranquility Peace is a gift and a promise from God. Any peace we try to find in the world is fleeting – it doesn’t last when difficult circumstances or conflict come up. But the peace Jesus gives us “transcends all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). This means that even when everything around us looks like chaos, we can still have an internal peace that doesn’t make sense to the world because it’s not of the world! The Bible not only reveals that peace is a gift and promise from God, but that we are also to “make effort to do what leads to peace” (Romans 14:19), “seek peace and pursue it” (Psalm 34:14). As followers of Jesus, our lives should be modeled after Him – the Prince of Peace. READ: “Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life, then God’s wonderful peace that transcends all understanding, will make the answers known to you through Jesus Christ.” Philippians 4:6-7 (TPT) “So then, make it your top priority to live a life of peace with harmony in your relationships, eagerly seeking to strengthen and encourage one another” Romans 14:19 (TPT) “Turn away from evil and do good.